Senior Manager, Connections & Media

The Coca-Cola Company•Atlanta, GA

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Connections & Media is responsible—together with Brand, IMX, Content, and the cross-functional marketing community—for building and orchestrating best-in-class, end-to-end (E2E) connection plans across the most relevant paid, earned, owned, and shared touchpoints for the U.S. market. This leader translates business strategy into communications strategy and an optimal connections architecture, develops prioritized investment strategies, and ensures plans are fully integrated with core creative ideas to deliver brand and commercial objectives. The role also oversees media investment negotiations and activation in partnership with our agency ecosystem, ensuring governance, brand safety, and measurement are embedded throughout the planning and execution cycle.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Business, or related field required
8–10+ years of progressive experience in media strategy/planning/buying with significant national and/or regional market ownership.
Proven track record delivering measurable outcomes across omnichannel campaigns and partnering with agencies/platforms.
Experience connecting media to e-commerce/in-store outcomes; retail media networks and shoppable formats strongly preferred.
Has operated within highly matrixed, cross-functional organizations; CPG experience a plus.
Media & Channel Expertise Deep knowledge across TV/CTV/addressable, audio, OOH, programmatic, paid social, search, and multicultural media.
High level of acumen on digital media (including programmatic) and paid social; understands how channels integrate in a modern mix.
Experience with integrated media partnerships and large, multi-channel campaigns.
Data & Analytics Savvy Comfortable interpreting MMM, MTA, brand lift, test-and-control, and competitive analyses; adept at turning insights into optimizations.
Hands-on familiarity with MarTech/AdTech stacks (e.g., CDP/DMP/DSP), clean rooms, and identity solutions to inform planning and personalization.
Understanding of media measurement across the full funnel and application of learnings to future planning.
Leadership & Collaboration Strong people leadership and agency management experience; inspires cross-functional teams and secures alignment.
Exceptional collaborator with Brand, Creative, IMX, FLM/Commercial, PR/Comms, and Field/Customer teams.
Communication & Project Management Clear, compelling communicator who simplifies technical concepts; strong storytelling that ties media to business outcomes.
Outstanding project management and organization; manages multiple plans and timelines in a fast-paced environment.
Technical Skills & Competencies Strategic thinking and ideation; connections planning across paid/earned/owned/shared touchpoints.
Financial acumen and budget management; negotiation and influencing skills.
Data-driven mindset with analytics fluency and comfort with experimentation (test-and-learn).
Proficiency with common productivity and analytics tools (e.g., Microsoft 365, analytics dashboards/platforms).

Nice To Haves

MBA or advanced degree is a plus (marketing/analytics focus preferred).

Responsibilities

Connections Strategy & Planning (E2E) Lead the development of consumer-first, audience-led connection strategies and market-appropriate plans across paid, earned, owned, and shared channels.
Translate brand objectives into clear communications architecture, journeys, and flights that balance upper-funnel brand building with lower-funnel commerce outcomes.
Integrate connection plans with core creative platforms and content assets, ensuring platform-specific creative and placements.
Partner with national and field teams to de-average national assumptions where relevant and reflect local consumer, competitive, and customer dynamics.
Investment Strategy & Activation Oversight Develop budget allocations and channel mix recommendations based on opportunity sizing, historical performance, and market signals.
Provide strategic direction for media investment and act as day-to-day steward with agency partners across TV/CTV, audio, OOH, programmatic, social, search, and emerging formats.
Oversee trafficking, pacing, quality control, brand safety, and compliance; surface optimization recommendations and implications for future cycles.
Direct and/or support negotiations of paid media investments in partnership with agencies to maximize effectiveness and efficiency.
Audience, Data & Insights Leverage 1st/2nd/3rd-party data and unified data platforms to refine audience strategies (e.g., geo-segmentation, propensity, lookalike modeling).
Identify high-value cohorts, media consumption patterns, and retailer/shopper contexts to personalize messaging and placements.
Craft clear, data-grounded briefs for agencies; challenge legacy assumptions and pilot new channels/formats for hard-to-reach audiences.
Measurement & Analytics Integration Set brand- and market-level KPIs (e.g., ROAS, incremental sales lift, brand lift, foot traffic) and ensure tracking/tagging are in place.
Partner with Marketing Analytics/Insights on MMM, MTA, lift studies, and competitive spend analyses; translate findings into optimizations.
Lead post-mortems to diagnose strategy/creative/execution drivers, codify learnings, and feed a continuous test-and-learn loop.
Cross-Functional Alignment & Integration Serve as the bridge between Media and Brand, IMX, Creative, PR/Comms, FLM/Commercial, and Customer/Retail teams to embed connections into broader plans.
Translate business priorities (e.g., driving trial for a new cohort or supporting a key customer initiative) into actionable, audience-first media briefs.
Maintain tight feedback loops during execution, sharing performance updates and rapidly reflecting budget, promo, or inventory changes in plans.
Agency & Partner Management Provide clear strategic direction to agency teams; uphold high standards in planning rigor, creativity, and operational excellence.
Evaluate agency performance against benchmarks and recommend resource or scope adjustments where needed.
Identify, nurture, and leverage external partnerships, including retail media networks and platform partners.
Innovation Scout, pilot, and scale modern activation opportunities (e.g., CTV/addressable, dynamic DOOH, local creators/influencers, shoppable/social commerce).
Champion AI-powered tools for budget allocation, audience expansion, and creative personalization; set hypotheses and measurement plans for each pilot.
Document learnings from both successful and unsuccessful tests to sharpen future efforts.
Leadership & Development Promote a culture of curiosity, accountability, and continuous improvement across internal teams and agencies.